Network delay is a design and performance characteristic of a
telecommunications network
A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, message ...
. It specifies the
latency for a bit of data to travel across the network from one
communication endpoint
A communication endpoint is a type of communication network node. It is an interface exposed by a communicating party or by a communication channel. An example of the latter type of a communication endpoint is a publish-subscribe topic or a grou ...
to another.
It is typically measured in multiples or fractions of a second. Delay may differ slightly, depending on the location of the specific pair of communicating endpoints. Engineers usually report both the maximum and average delay, and they divide the delay into several parts:
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Processing delay
Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...
time it takes a router to process the packet header
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Queuing delay
In telecommunication and computer engineering, the queuing delay or queueing delay is the time a job waits in a queue until it can be executed. It is a key component of network delay. In a switched network, queuing delay is the time between the co ...
time the packet spends in routing queues
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Transmission delay
In a network based on packet switching, transmission delay (or store-and-forward delay, also known as packetization delay) is the amount of time required to push all the packet's bits into the wire. In other words, this is the delay caused by the ...
time it takes to push the packet's bits onto the link
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Propagation delay
Propagation delay is the time duration taken for a signal to reach its destination. It can relate to networking, electronics or physics. ''Hold time'' is the minimum interval required for the logic level to remain on the input after triggering e ...
time for a signal to propagate through the media
A certain minimum level of delay is experienced by signals due to the time it takes to
transmit
Transmit is a file transfer client program for macOS. Developed by Panic, Transmit is shareware. After a seven-day trial period, the product can only be used for seven-minute sessions until it has been purchased. Originally built as an FTP client ...
a packet serially through a
link. This delay is extended by more variable levels of delay due to
network congestion
Network congestion in data networking and queueing theory is the reduced quality of service that occurs when a network node or link is carrying more data than it can handle. Typical effects include queueing delay, packet loss or the blocking of ...
.
IP network
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...
delays can range from a few milliseconds to several hundred milliseconds.
See also
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Age of Information
The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, Silicon Age, or New Media Age) is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during t ...
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End-to-end delay
End-to-end delay or one-way delay (OWD) refers to the time taken for a packet to be transmitted across a network from source to destination. It is a common term in IP network monitoring, and differs from round-trip time (RTT) in that only path in t ...
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Lag (video games)
In computers, lag is delay ( latency) between the action of the user (input) and the reaction of the server supporting the task, which has to be sent back to the client.
The player's ability to tolerate lag depends on the type of game being pl ...
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Latency (engineering)
Latency, from a general point of view, is a time delay between the cause and the effect of some physical change in the system being observed. Lag, as it is known in gaming circles, refers to the latency between the input to a simulation and t ...
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Minimum-Pairs Protocol
The minimum-pairs (or MP) is an active measurement protocol to estimate in real-time the smaller of the forward and reverse one-way network delays (OWDs). It is designed to work in hostile environments, where a set of three network nodes can esti ...
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Round-trip delay
In telecommunications, round-trip delay (RTD) or round-trip time (RTT) is the amount of time it takes for a signal to be sent ''plus'' the amount of time it takes for acknowledgement of that signal having been received. This time delay includes pr ...
References
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Computer networking
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